Human Resources and Tow Trucks

Good Evening and Happy Friday!

After feeling a bit inspired by Sarah Nourse's video and Scott Dinsmore's TEDx Talk, I went online and looked up the El Paso chapter of SHRM, the national human resources organization. The event was the following evening. After freaking out internally a bit, I went ahead and signed up to attend while cringing to the twenty-five dollars it was going to cost me. I'm so glad that I got out of my comfort zone and went to the kickoff event. Networking events in your field or the field you want to be in are definitely a good investment. At this meeting they swore in the new president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and so on for 2017. It definitely gave off vibes of college organizations and clubs. 

One thing I thought was smart of them was to make a game of sorts to get people to walk around and talk to people. Later the woman next to me and I figured out it was for a raffle, but it was too late. I ended up talking to people a bit too much, so I didn't get to enter that particular raffle. However, I did win a blue mug, a Starbucks gift card, and and extra drink ticket (which I gave to someone else). 

By and awesome twist of fate, the first table I sat down at included a woman who worked in the HR department at a company I worked at as a temporary employee doing data entry for two weeks. I also completely forgot that EPSHRM held an event in the conference room next door to where I worked, while I was there. Before leaving the event I got her business card and talked about interning with them to learn more about human resources. I hope that turns into something because the company she works for has a good feel to it. Everyone was so friendly and it gave me the impression that this company would be a good one to work for. To my surprise, she remembered my name from when I worked there.

After leaving the event, I called my mom, of course. I was rather exited and just elated at how the evening had gone. If you can't tell from the title of this post, my car was no longer in the parking lot when I made it outside. After freaking out internally again, I looked for any sign as to where it would have gone and found a phone number near the entrance. Yup, they towed my truck about a ten minute drive away. Thank goodness the tow truck driver was still taking away other cars in the parking lot, so I was able to carpool with him. The driver was actually from Juarez, which is maybe ten minutes away from El Paso, so English was not his first language just like Spanish is not mine. Conversation was a bit awkward due to the language barrier, but he was really nice.

The part of the evening that was not as fun was having the pay for the cost of towing, which took about half of my minuscule part-time Chinese restaurant paycheck. Overall it was a great evening, I got to meet lots of new people, and see a glimpse of my future career life.

I also found some TEDx Talks relating to finding your career that I enjoyed, so I will post them here for anyone else that may be in the same boat as me.

Benjamin Todd

"To Find Work You Love, Don't Follow Your Passion"

Eunice Hii

"Don't Just Follow Your Passion: A Talk for Generation Y"

Dianna David

"Have the Balls to Follow Your Dream"

Have an awesome day!